OXON HILL, Maryland — The Senate could pass legislation protecting same-sex and interracial marriage after Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas welcomed legal challenges to substantive due process precedents similar to Roe v. Wade.
The measure, improbable this time last year, has been embraced by Democrats. But the Respect for Marriage Act could have unintended consequences before November’s midterm elections after Democrats, such as President Joe Biden, campaigned on Thomas’s concurring opinion as an example of extreme “MAGA” Republicans. The majority opinion argues that the abortion ruling has no implications for the other precedents.
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One Democrat, Colby College visiting politics instructor and former candidate Sandy Maisel, contended the best political outcome for his party could be for fewer than 10 Senate Republicans to support the marriage legislation. That would ensure the measure does not overcome the chamber’s filibuster rules, and it would remain a potent campaign issue.
“However, I think that the primary sponsors, and I also think [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer, honestly want it to pass as a way to prevent further erosion of women’s rights by the Supreme Court,” Maisel told the Washington Examiner.
Maisel downplayed any possibility of the marriage legislation’s passage dampening Democratic momentum demonstrated in primary and special elections held since Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization reversed Roe, in addition to the party’s improved odds before the 2022 midterm cycle.
Democratic strategist Mike Nellis, too, was unconcerned, insisting Congress passing marriage legislation is “the right thing to do.” Nellis, CEO of Authentic, did claim Republicans are only backing the measure “because they cannot afford to seem even more out of touch after the Dobbs decision.”
“Let’s not forget the only reason this legislation is necessary is because the GOP stacked the Supreme Court with right-wing ideologues who oppose abortion access and marriage equality,” he said.
A Republican operative disagreed: “Democrat attacks are dishonest and empty, and voters see right through them. Families are struggling to put food on the table, and communities are not safe, yet scoring political points is the priority of Democrats.”
But Nellis’s comments have been echoed by Biden and Democrats, including at the Democratic National Committee‘s summer meeting this week in Maryland. At the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, the party’s resolution committee approved language underscoring its commitment “to reproductive justice, privacy rights, and personal freedoms.”
“All of us are coming together to defend our rights, to defend our freedoms, to defend our privacy and our justice as we see it, and to make sure that our families aren’t determined by members of the Supreme Court but rather than by our choices and our decisions,” Christine Pelosi, daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), said Thursday. “We need to make sure that this election is clearly understood, two months from today, to be one that is a referendum on Trumpism and a referendum on reclaiming Roe.”
During a drop-in appearance, DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison told the Youth Council that Republicans “love to talk” about the Declaration of Independence and the Pledge of Allegiance. But Harrison reminded members the latter pledge concludes with “liberty and justice for all,” not “liberty and justice for some of y’all.”
“They like the way the words sound, but they don’t have a damn clue what the words actually mean,” he said. “Being American is all about that freedom and liberty to be you. Republicans want to constrict that, and they only want you to be what they want you to be.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has reaffirmed Biden’s deference to Democratic lawmakers for legislative strategy, an approach adopted after his Build Back Better negotiations first broke down. Biden is imploring the Senate to pass the marriage bill “swiftly” because the right for people to marry whomever they choose is “nonnegotiable,” according to Jean-Pierre, despite the president previously advancing the Defense of Marriage Act.
“The president was one of the first leaders, after the Dobbs decision leaked, to sound the alarm about the imminent threat this meant to the right to marry, something he has continuously reminded the country of since,” she said Wednesday. “His team is going to continue to be closely connected and have continued conversations with staff and members in Congress to make sure that we get this done.”
Biden did publicly endorse same-sex marriage as vice president in 2012 before former President Barack Obama, putting pressure on his old boss to do the same. The possible electoral dynamics of the marriage legislation mirror those of immigration reform under Obama before the 2010 midterm contests.
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Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), the first openly gay woman elected to the House and Senate, has been counting Senate votes alongside Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), as well as countering religious freedom concerns. Schumer (D-NY) told reporters Wednesday that the legislation will likely be brought to the floor “in the coming weeks.”
